A MEMOIR OF ELIAS LOOMIS. 753 



of this storm by Professor Loomis was probably more complete than 

 that of any previous one, and the methods which he employed were 

 better fitted to elicit the truth than any earlier methods. But the storm 

 was a very large one, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to an unknown 

 distance north, and having its center apparently to the north of all the 

 observers. The results which he was able to secure did not sustain 

 either of the two rival theories, but rather tended to prove some fea- 

 tures in each of them. Professor Loomis was not himself satisfied 

 with them, and he therefore waited for another storm that should "be 

 better fitted for examination. 



In the month of February, 1842, a second tornado passed over north- 

 eastern Ohio, and Professor Loomis with one of his colleagues again 

 started out for the examination of the track. The tornado passed over 

 a piece of woods, and hence the positions of the prostrate trees showed 

 clearly the motion of the wind in the passing tornado and threw much 

 light upon the character of this kind of storm. But the tornado was a 

 single feature of a large storm that covered the whole country, and a 

 second storm of great intensity Avas also experienced in the same 

 mouth. 



The discussion of these two storms was now undertaken by him. The 

 paper giving the results of that discussion was sent to Professor Bache 

 and read by him at the centennial meeting of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society in May, 1843, and created, as Professor Bache wrote, a great 

 sensation. It was at the time important for the light which it threw 

 upon the rival contending theories of Espy and of Redfield, but it was 

 more important by far by reason of the new method of investigation 

 then for the first time employed. 



In the paper upon the storm of 1836, Professor Loomis had made some 

 advance upon previous methods of representing the facts about storms. 

 But even the method he then used was entirely unfitted to give an- 

 swers to the questions which meteorologists were asking. Some of 

 those questions were stated in circulars issued by the joint committee 

 of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute: 

 What are the phases of the great storms of rain and snow that traverse 

 our conrinent; what their shape and size; in what direction and with 

 what velocity do their centers move along the surface of the earth ; are 

 they round or oblong or irregular in shape ; do they move in different 

 directions in different seasons of the year? 



The gra])hic representation by Professor Loomis on the map of the 

 United States of the storm of 1836, had been a series of lines drawn 

 joining the places where at a given hour tlie barometer was at its low- 

 est point. That line would, so far as the barometer was concerned, 

 mark for that hour the central line of the storm. The progress of the 

 line from hour to hour on the map showed, quite imperfectly, how the 

 storm had traveled. Some arrows added showed to the eye also cer- 

 tain facts abont the movements of the air. 

 H. Mis. 129—48 



